The Neighbor
by Wishful Thinker
Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take his revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.
1. Meeting the Neighbor

Chapter One: Neighbors

It was always hard to lose a patient, but as Edward dragged himself from the hospital changing rooms he was weighed down by this one. The woman had been young, about his age. And she had been pregnant. He didn't know the details, but she'd been in some sort of car crash and though technically her husband had gotten her to the hospital alive, it was only barely.

Her husband. Edward rubbed at his eyes as he saw the memory of the man again. He'd been quiet while his wife was worked on, so quiet no one had thought to remove him from the room until long after his wife was cold. Cold and dead. Edward had finally called her at 9:33. Security had had to remove the man then, he'd lost it.

He'd launched himself at everyone in sight, yelling at them, telling them she was still alive. Begging her to be.

Edward was done for the night now, his shift having ended during that unfortunate episode. He made his way home quickly and quietly, mulling the stranger who's life he had not been able to save. The baby who had never had a chance. The distraught husband they'd left behind. He wasn't sure who had it worse off really, but while he doubted he would forget the bruised and pale red haired woman's face, he knew he would not forget the look he'd seen in the husbands eyes.

When he finally made it to his apartment building, his revere was broken by the unexpected sounds of laughing. The hallway leading to his apartment was filled with a good smell, a food he couldn't quite identify. The laughter sounded again, coming from the apartment next to his. There seemed to be a lot of people inside, and a small smile tugged at his lips as he slid the key into his own door.

Edward didn't know it yet, but that was the night that Isabella Swan became his neighbor.

~~~ Weeks Later~~~

Bella was coming to a very strange revelation: she needed to meet her neighbor. She was fairly sure she's met everyone else in the building so far, and she was just as near sure that every female so far had gushed about the godlike creature she was apparently sharing a wall with. She'd never seen him herself, but she was fairly confident she could write his resume at this point. If she could draw she could probably produce his likeness.

Her upstairs neighbor, Jessica, had been particularly specific in her summation of his physical qualities. Angela across the hall had been quite taken by his job as a doctor. There were whispers that he sometimes played a piano in his room.

The men had been decidedly less vocal, but she hadn't actually heard a bad trait yet. Ben across the hall simply rolled his eyes in what seemed to be amusement as Angela recounted running into this mysterious man in the hallway caught up in a phone call to his mother. _His mother_, Angela had stressed, as if that were the some ultimate sign.

Bella found herself somewhere between amused at the strange lot she'd apparently signed on to live by, and curious to see the source of all these rumors. But in the weeks since her move the most she herself had heard from the apartment next door was the occasional sound of the door in the early morning and again at night. A few times she'd though she heard the faint sound of music, but it had only stoked her curiosity rather than satisfy it. And that was the catalyst that led to her current situation: sitting in her kitchen with Heathcliff, her rather large mutt, holding a leash and starring guiltily at the door.

Like clockwork she heard the neighboring door open and she was up like she'd been stung, heading out the door. Exiting her apartment she told herself mentally that she was just walking the dog, nothing unusual, but her heartbeat betrayed her and, as she locked the door behind her and turned to face her neighbor, so did her body.

He was walking passed her towards the entryway as she locked her door and turned. But in her nervous state she forgot about the dog, who turned out to be just as eager to go for a walk as she had been to ambush her neighbor. Heathcliff turned opposite Bella, and in her haste she stumbled over the unexpectedly taught leash and fell, her torso connecting with that of her rather startled neighbor in an abrupt embrace.

Shocked, she looked up and suddenly locked eyes with the man, her face no doubt bright red even as she lost herself inappropriately in his green eyes. She took in his strong jaw, his flushed face, the bits of hazel in his green eyes. Her only lucid thought was that her neighbors hadn't been wrong.

"Uh…hello." He said finally.

"Oh, uh, hi." She said eloquently as she suddenly started pulling herself up awkwardly away from him. Heathcliff pulled on his leash again, oblivious to the moment, and she lurched forward again. His arms reached out to steady her instinctively, and they once again found themselves almost embracing in the hallway. Bella was positive her heart had ceased functioning. Her brain wasn't fairing any better. "I'm Bella, nice to meet you?" The introduction came out as a question.

"Edward." He smiled slightly at her and moved to stand her up. "Nice to meet you too, Bella."

They began to walk towards the nearby door together, the dog barreling out first. But Bella didn't notice Heathcliff's energy. She didn't notice much of anything really. One of Edward's steadying hands lingered on her arm as they left the building, and her entire brain was focused on the soft heat seeping through her shirt sleeve where his palm lay, even after it was gone and she was off down the street with only Heathcliff for company.

Had her attention not been so occupied, she might have noticed the lingering look her neighbor—_Edward_ gave her as they parted outside the building, or the way his fingers flexed slightly as he finally turned and headed towards his car.

Of course, had either of them not been so occupied, they might have seen the man sitting in his van across the street watching their interaction. Edward might even have recognized him.


	2. A Long Night

Chapter Two: A Long Night

By the time he made it home it was nearly midnight and the neighborhood was quiet. Edward parked in his usual spot and sat for a moment, working up the energy to get the rest of the way home. He'd just finished a grueling 24 hour shift in the ER. He hadn't had anything major this time, unlike last time he'd had this shift a month ago, but he was exhausted just the same from the shear amount of petty injuries and false alarms he'd dealt with.

Sighing in exhaustion he finally pulled the key from the ignition and opened the door to step out. A small, quiet sound hit his ears as soon as he stood up.

Turning his head he searched for the source. It sounded a bit like air leaking out of something. The sound paused and then started again. It was coming from the hedges separating the parking lot from the courtyard. Closing his door softly, Edward stepped closer.

It grew louder immediately and his overworked mind finally identified it: a whine.

The hedge jerked suddenly and Edward's pulse jumped violently as the dark face of a familiar dog lurched into view.

"Heathcliff? What are you doing out here…" the dog limped toward him and he trailed off. There was blood matting the dog's fur and a glassy look to his eyes.

Unsure of the extent of the injury, Edward patted Heathcliff on the head in what he hoped was a reassuring manner before hurrying into the building to knock on his neighbor's door.

There was no answer. He knocked again and when he still got no response he leaned into the door and listened. It was quiet inside. Looking around he briefly considered trying the couple across the hall, but really it seemed too late to be making so much noise.

Sighing in frustration now he hurriedly found his house key and went to find something he could make a note out of.

_I've taken your dog to the vet, call me when you get this._

He scribbled his cell number at the bottom, knocked one more time, and finally slipped the note under the door before hurrying out to collect the injured dog and find an open vet.

On his way out the door he may have spared a thought as to where his neighbor was at midnight on a Wednesday, and who she might be there with.

The animal hospital was empty except for the vet and a younger woman Edward assumed was a vet tech or something similar. Heathcliff was taken in immediately, his wounds already half sutured before Edward gave up on the paperwork. He knew the name and address questions for his neighbor, filled in his own credit card information, and then stared dumbly at the rest. For breed he put 'dog,' for weight he put 'large.' He was gripped with the realization that he knew surprisingly little about the species.

His phone vibrated.

"Mom?" It was late for a phone call.

"Edward," her voice sounded strange, "there's been an. . . your sister . . ."

He slammed the paperwork onto the check in desk and ran out the door so fast his car was already roaring out of the parking lot before the door closed.

To say that Rosalie was angry would be an understatement. She'd already had the wound on her forearm stitched up, an experience so traumatizing that the resident who had done the job had to be sent home early to recover. No fewer than three cops and one detective had questioned her, and now she was forced to wait in a cold, sterilized hospital room until her x-rays were back to confirm what she'd already told everyone in the vicinity. She was fine, and she had better things to do than sit here waiting for Seattle's finest to wake up and get moving.

She'd been able to talk to her husband briefly, so she knew that any second now her family would come rushing in. She wasn't looking forward to it exactly, but there was no helping it. This night had quickly gotten out of control.

From her position on the gurney she was able to see down the hallway outside the room and had been alternating between glaring at the officers lingering in front of her closed door and watching Emmett shifting around anxiously, almost constantly on his phone.

So she was so well placed that when the detective returned with the doctor she saw them immediately and stood, huffing, to open the door.

Then her brother-in-law burst through the hallway doors looking frantic in a blood covered shirt.

Edward rushed through the hospital corridors; phone in hand, to where his brother was waiting. He didn't see Rosalie immediately, but the lump in his stomach eased slightly when he burst through the doors to see his brother talking calmly to a uniformed man.

The noise of his arrival drew all eyes to him, and he was just about to speak when a gasp distracted him.

Emmett took one look at him and exclaimed "Jesus Edward, what happened to you?"

He replied with an expressive "Huh?" before following his brother's eyes to his own shirt. It was bloody. "Oh. It's not mine." One of the officers shifted forward a bit so he rushed to elaborate. "A dog! It's my neighbor's dog, I found him outside and took him to the vet. He must have bled on me. I came straight here . . ." His voice trailed off slightly as he assessed the small crowd around him, spotting Rosalie's raised eyebrows through the window for the first time. "How's Rose?"

A suited man near him interrupted Emmett's terse "She's okay" with "You took your neighbor's dog to the vet?"

"Uh yeah. I found him outside limping around, but she wasn't home. So I took him in." His eyes shifted back to Emmett and he again asked about Rosalie. The tension lessened now, a doctor he wasn't too familiar with entered the room Rosalie was in. From what he could see she looked fine, albeit with a bandaged arm. Emmett filled him in on her injuries and told him their parents were nearly to Seattle.

But the biggest shock of a so far shocking night came when Emmett finally told him what had happened. He hadn't wanted to explain over the phone lest Edward end up running his car off the road or something, but now seated in the safety of the hospital Emmett finally told him that Rosalie had gone with Alice to the theater and that the two had been ambushed walking back to their car. Rosalie had been injured but had managed to escape with a description of the attacker and his van, but. . . Alice had not.

"Where's Jasper?"

"He's already down at the police station. Rosalie said she thinks the guy was after Alice, not her, so they're trying to figure out who—"

Emmett was interrupted by his phone ringing just as Edward felt his vibrate in his hand.

"It's Mom." Emmett said as he answered his. Edward looked at his own display, "the vet."

They separated to take their calls, and Edward noticed that the detective followed him further down the hall. He huffed and turned back to the conversation.

The dog was out of surgery apparently, three layers of stiches had been used. The vet told him it looked like the poor thing had been stabbed.

"Stabbed? Who would stab a dog?" He mentally groaned as his outburst noticeably drew the attention of the nearby detective.

The veterinarian moved on "we also ran the dog's microchip. We were able to get a number for Ms. Swan, but we haven't been able to reach her. Have you been able to contact her?"

"No," Edward exhaled, "I left her a note but she hasn't contacted me yet."

They wanted to keep the dog overnight since the sedatives needed time to wear off, but promised to call in the morning with any news. Edward in turn promised to do his best to find the actual owner. He hung up feeling incredibly exhausted.

"Everything alright Mr. Cullen?" The detective, Detective Aro?, asked him slowly.

"Yeah, just the vet. Apparently they can't get ahold of Bella—my neighbor—either, so they called me."

"Your neighbor's name is Bella?" The man was creepy, Edward thought, his stare was too intense.

"Yeah, Bella Swan. Or, um, Isabella I think." He squinted slightly at the older man, confused at his line of questioning.

"Mr. Cullen, what does Ms. Swan look like?"

"Huh? She's . . . small, I guess? Brown hair, brown eyes . . ." he trailed off helplessly, not at all sure why he was being asked to describe his neighbor to a police detective while his sister was off who knows were.

Detective Aro's eyes tightened slightly just as Edward remembered something his brother had told him Rosalie had said:

_There was someone in the van already, a girl, unconscious. Rose said she didn't get a good look but didn't recognize her._

Dots connected, Edward looked up and spoke quietly: "You don't think. . . "

But he did, and now they were both thinking the same thing: Whoever had attacked Rosalie and taken Alice, had already gotten Bella.

All Edward could think now, was why?

Author's Note: Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to plan on updating once a week. I've got an outline and some parts written already but I'm revising as I go. Please review! I've been away from ffnet for years so I'm still getting used to the changes but I'm sure I'll figure out how to respond and whatnot soon enough.


	3. Smile Pretty

Chapter 3: Smile Pretty

Plaid. The first thing Bella saw when she woke was an ugly plaid. It was brown and yellow, frayed at the edges and showing obvious signs of age. It was stretched thinly across a small window situated high on the wall and illuminated with a faint light. It must be morning, was her first thought.

The second was less pleasant, and caused her to sit up abruptly, moving to clutch at her head out of reflex as a headache pounded at her temple. Her hand never made it though, being tied to its partner behind her.

"What—"

A noise to her right drew her attention, and Bella turned to find a small dark haired girl sitting a few feet away and watching her. The girl seemed to be tied up similarly, with both hands secured behind her back and her legs visibly tied in front of her. Bella took in her rumpled but posh looking blouse, her artfully styled pixie cut, and her painful looking high heels.

"Hi."

"Oh, uh hello." Bella responded awkwardly, trying to shift into a less awkward position as her numbed arms tingled painfully.

"I'm Alice."

"Bella, nice to meet you." Her voice trailed off awkwardly as the platitude fell from her mouth out of habit. The small girl, _Alice_, quirked a corner of her mouth as if to laugh. Bella looked around the dim room again, taking in a thread bare couch flanked by outdated end tables, another small, high window, and stairs leading up to a closed door. It looked every bit like a finished basement, and if the wooden walls and rustic touches were to be trusted, it was probably the basement of some kind of cabin.

"What's going on?" Bella addressed Alice, who was still watching her.

"I'm not sure," Alice deadpanned, "but we seemed to have been kidnapped."

Bella snorted.

Alice turned more toward her now. "How's your head? You've been unconscious for a long time."

Bella fidgeted with her tied hands again, wanting badly to be able to rub her head.

"It's been better. I'm pretty sure he hit me with something." She frowned, trying to remember what had happened.

It'd been dark, and she'd been listening to her mp3 player even though she had promised Charlie not to do exactly that while walking at night. But with Heathcliff she never really worried about her safety anymore.

_Heathcliff!_ "Oh god!" She remembered being grabbed from behind, a hand over her mouth. Heathcliff had turned around and leapt at her attacker.

"What?" Alice asked.

There'd been a flash of something, the shine of some kind of knife. Bella shuddered. "He stabbed my dog." She'd been struggling uselessly against his hold, and she'd seen him stab the knife deep into her dog, her earbuds had been knocked from her ears in time to hear the pained whimper.

The man had swung the back of the knife back up and hit her in the head with it. It'd gone dark, and the next she remembered she'd been waking up a few minutes earlier.

They were silent for a while, until finally Alice quietly started speaking. "I was leaving a movie with my sister-in-law. We were walking back to her car and passed a van parked on the side of the road. A man jumped out and grabbed at us. Rosalie got away," she paused, "I think she banged him up pretty bad, actually."

Bella nodded her agreement. "Did you recognize him?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I don't know him. You?"

_Bang_

Both girls jerked at the noise above them. It sounded like something upstairs had been dropped or slammed. They were abruptly reminded that the man who had taken them both and left them tied up was not actually very far away.

Eyes still on the closed basement door, Alice now whispered, "I think there's something wrong with him. He kept muttering earlier, talking to himself. I couldn't make much sense of it, something about someone named Victoria and a baby and a doctor." Alice glanced at her sideways, "you don't happen to be a doctor do you?"

"No, and I don't know anyone named Victoria either."

There were more sounds coming from upstairs now, it sounded like someone was stomping around, and they could hear a muffled voice.

"Me either, but my Dad and my brother are both doctors."

Bella thought about that, "Alice?"

"Yeah?" Alice responded absently as the stomping noises above seemed to draw closer and the voice louder."

"What's your brother's name?"

Alice turned to look at her now, "Edward, why?"

The door banged open then, and both girls jumped as a man with greasy, dirty blonde hair stamped quickly down the stairs, a camera phone held in front of him.

When he reached the bottom and turned toward them he held up the camera phone and said "Now smile pretty, girls."

**TNTNTNTN**

**Author's Note:**

**So sorry for the huge delay! And right after I said I'd have the next chapter out in a week, too! I was actually about six chapters ahead of posting when I wrote that, having written them out and then typed them up, but my computer got a series of viruses and after much drama I lost all my files and ended up having to buy a whole new computer. **

**After all that there wasn't much incentive to write this stuff for what is now pretty much the third time, so I took a break and worked on some other stuff. Hopefully everything is back on track now though, especially with the semester over. I'll try to be good, thanks for sticking around if you have.**


	4. Soap Opera

Chapter Four:

Edward had experienced more than his fair share of bad days in his lifetime, but this night was rapidly eclipsing all others in terms of horribleness. So far he'd worked an exhausting, stressful shift at work, become responsible for someone else's severely injured animal, been told his sister-in-law was in the hospital following an attack and that his little sister had been kidnapped, and was now, as if all that wasn't bad enough, sitting in a hard plastic chair at the police department while detectives and police attempted to determine whether or not his neighbor might just have been kidnapped as well.

To say he felt like he'd stepped into the Twilight Zone wouldn't be wrong, though really Edward was more inclined to believe he'd stepped into some overly dramatic soap opera. His tired mind was almost expecting some long lost twin to burst in the room at any moment.

He looked up as someone did, in fact, burst in through the door. But it was only an older mustachioed man dressed in uniform, and Edward was almost positive this was not his long lost twin.

Edward watched apathetically as the man swiftly approached the receptionist and said something too quiet for him to hear. The woman picked up a phone and pressed a few buttons, and soon the detective Edward had spoken to first at the hospital, Detective Aro, materialized from somewhere and led the stranger into a side room.

Edward went back to his phone.

He'd spoken to the vet office again on the way to the police station and had explained again that Heathcliff's owner was missing. Since the dog was in no condition to be moved at the moment, there was less issue than he expected, and for now at least the dog was sleeping off a heavy dose of sedatives while his immediate future remained unclear.

Rosalie had also been released from the hospital already, much to the relief of everyone who worked there. Her injuries had consisted almost entirely of a few scratches and bruises, and the shallow cut on her arm near the elbow had only required three stitches. In other circumstances her trip to the ER would have probably taken an hour, but with the police coming through for questioning and the stream of relatives bursting in, especially Edward and his bloody shirt had slowed things considerably.

He hadn't had time to go home yet, having been asked to go straight to the station, but luckily he had a gym bag with clean clothes in his car, and so had been able to exchange his soiled shirt for a plain white t shirt and an old zip-up hoodie. Paired with his scrub pants it was unusually informal, but comfortable enough, and anyway he'd been awake nearly thirty hours straight now and was not in the mood to care about his appearance.

An incoming text interrupted the game of solitaire he'd been playing on his phone, and Edward read that his parents were nearly at the station. Emmett had called them a few hours earlier and they had immediately headed to Seattle.

He clicked out an acknowledgement, before opening a new message and sending Jasper, his sister's husband, a message asking if they had found anything new. Jasper had gone with a detective to his and Alice's house to see if there was anything awaiting him. The detectives seemed to be expecting a ransom request to turn up, and frankly Edward hoped it did because the alternatives weren't something he wanted to think about.

He had just sent his message and was watching the screen for a response when his parents arrived at the station. He stood up, his back creaking painfully, and made his way over to them while they spoke to the receptionist.

"Oh Edward!" His mother rushed him when he came into her line of sight. She grabbed him in a hug so encompassing he wasn't sure he could have gotten out of it had he wanted to.

"Hey Mom, Dad." He nodded at his father, who was now walking to him as well.

"How are you honey?" His mother Esme was now holding his face and looking him over, for injuries he assumed.

Edward huffed a short laugh, "I've had better days."

His mother continued to tsk over him, while Carlisle said "Emmett told us what he knew, have they found anything else out?"

Edward shook his head. "Not really, right now they're trying to figure out if my neighbor is missing too, but . . . " He shrugged tiredly as the door to Detective Aro's office opened and they were called to come in.

As they entered the room and the detective began introductions Edward felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to see an unfamiliar number.

"Sorry, this might be the vet." He excused himself to take the call as he answered it.

"How does it feel." A man's voice called across the line.

"What?"

"I said, how does it feel?" The voice repeated, making just as much sense to Edward's tired mind.

This didn't sound like the vet. And so far only the actual vet, who was female, and the woman who had been managing the front desk had called him.

"How does what feel?" Edward asked, continuing, "I think you might have the wrong number."

There was laughing now, deep, crazy sounding laughter. It ended abruptly.

"I don't think so Doctor. So tell me, how does it feel to know I have control over the two women _you _love?"

The line was cut abruptly. Edward hardly noticed as his phone beeped in his ear. He hadn't made it all the way out of the room before the strangeness of the conversation had caused him to pause in his tracks.

Turning to face the people gathered behind him, Edward found they were all staring at him.

Well, he thought, it was no long lost twin, but his personal soap opera seemed to be continuing none-the-less.


	5. To the Drawing Board

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Chapter Five: To the Drawing Board

It didn't take a detective to put the pieces together, though they had one on hand who happened to be doing just that. A few minutes after the call had ended, Edward's phone, now on Detective Aro's desk, beeped with a text alert. Edward held the device out in front of him as he clicked the buttons.

It was a photo. Of his neighbor and his sister.

The other details of the photo took a minute to penetrate his brain. In the meantime the phone was taken from his hand and passed around the room. Conversation soared.

The mustachioed man who was definitely _not_ his long-lost twin was the first to draw Edward's attention.

"That's definitely Bella."

Detective Aro nodded.

"And that's definitely Alice." Carlisle mimicked.

Detective Aro nodded again. He clicked a few buttons on Edward's phone.

"It's from the same number as the man you just spoke to. So these must be the 'two women you love.'"

The detective was just using the mystery man's words, but still Edward found the need to explain himself. "But I don't even know Bella. I've only talked to her once, and that was just this week."

"Well, regardless, what matters right now is that whoever this is," he shook the phone for emphasis, "believes she's important to you. Now, you're sure you didn't recognize the voice?"

Edward shook his head, "No, he didn't sound familiar." It was true, of all the things that man had sounded like—crazy came to mind—familiar wasn't involved.

He'd said all this before of course.

Everyone jumped when the phone buzzed again. A new message.

This time Detective Aro pushed the button to open the message. He read for a moment, then looked up with a cocked eyebrow.

"Lord Sasquatch?"

All eyes turned to Edward's suddenly red face. He grabbed the phone and read the message, muttering: "It's Emmett."

Rose had done that, weeks ago, after getting ahold of Edward's phone at a family barbeque. He and Emmett may have been having a conversation about a recent episode of Monster Quest. It may have escalated. Emmett still hadn't told him what Rose had changed his phone to say. Every time Edward called, though, Emmett answered laughing.

"He and Rose are here, he wants to know where they are supposed to go."

"I'll go find them." Esme volunteered, standing and heading out of the room quickly.

While they waited for Esme to bring Rose and Emmett back, another man, Detective Caius, came to hook some sort of device to Edward's phone. They also downloaded the photo to a computer in the room and made a few copies, which the detective took with him as he left.

Idly Edward wondered if they would assemble one of those big walls of photos and maps, maybe with connecting strings like in the movies.

It turned out a little disappointing. After sitting around in the office for half an hour waiting for another phone call, the detectives had eventually led Edward and his family as well as Charlie Swan—that was his not-long-lost-twin's name—to another room farther into the station. There had been a big rolling black board in the room on which photos and yes, even a map were affixed.

Edward's eyes were immediately drawn to the three largest photos, one each of his sister, Rose, and his neighbor. All three photos were close-ups that seemed like they had been cut from other, casual photos. He was pretty sure he recognized Alice's expression from the picture she had as her facebook profile.

The map had a few marks on it, one of which he recognized as his apartment. One of the others must have been near the theater Alice and Rosalie had gone to, but the rest he couldn't even guess at.

He wasn't left to wonder long, as soon enough Charlie Swan had Detective Aro explaining everything.

"The phone he used was purchased here," he pointed to a spot on the map, "he convinced an elderly woman to buy it for him. He paid her cash, and she used a card, so we've got nothing to link to him except her description."

The door opened and a young man in a police uniform came in and handed the detective a sheet of paper.

"Ah, perfect timing Alec." Aro took the paper and tacked it up onto the board. It was an artist's rendering, showing a non-descript man with light colored hair peeking out from a baseball cap.

"Does he look familiar?" Charlie asked Edward.

"No, not really." Edward squinted at the picture. "I mean, I could have seen him before I guess. Nothing comes to mind though."

"The witness said he had dark blond hair and blue eyes. Tall, but she couldn't estimate a height. He claimed the phone was a surprise for his wife."

Edward just shook his head, none of this was telling him anything.

The detective went back to the drawing board.

"Here," he pointed to the mark furthest south. "A traffic camera caught a van matching the description Ms. McCarty gave us. This was about ten minutes after we estimate she was attacked."

The detective went on to explain the other marks on the map, a few places that a van that was, possibly, the right one had been seen. It had been reported stolen nearly a week earlier. That location was also marked.

The grim look on Charlie Swan's face when he heard the van had been stolen a week prior did not go un-noticed. Edward assumed it was because this was all beginning to seem very planned out.

"When was that phone bought?" The man asked suddenly.

Detective Aro, who had been explaining something about phone with embedded gps units, turned to Chief Swan and paused a minute before answering.

"Nearly a month ago, on the 18th."

Charlie nodded grimly. "So he's been planning this at least a month then."

Edward took another look at the police sketch. Had he seen this man a month ago? He took in the black and white drawing, tried to picture the incredibly unremarkable features as a real person. Dark blonde hair and blue eyes, the witness had said. Edward turned his head slightly as he pictured it. The witness said he mentioned a wife, maybe Edward had met them both? Mentally he pictured a blurred, nondescript woman to fill the space of wife.

Behind him Detective Aro and Charlie Swan were discussing the possible van sightings.

"…nearly caused an accident veering around this corner…" Aro was saying.

_Accident._

Edward felt a memory pulling at him. A blonde man with blue eyes, his wife, and . . .

"A car accident." He said the thought aloud. Conversation around him paused.

"Around a month ago, at the hospital." Edward tried to sort out his thoughts as the night came back to him. That had been a bad night too. "There was a car accident, a woman was brought in in critical condition. Her husband. . ." he just gestured to the police sketch, "I think this is her husband."

_Author's Note: Whoa, two chapters in a day! I'm hoping to get the next one out this weekend but no promises. _

_On a totally different note, I know a lot of Fanfiction has James' last name as Hunter, but I looked it up (or googled it at least) and according to the movie his last name is Witherdale. I don't remember that being in the movie (maybe in the credits?), but seriously, James Witherdale? That is pretty bad. I'm not sure I can write a bad guy by the name of Witherdale and keep a straight face. Not that you can see me. You get what I mean._


	6. Power of Pumps

Title: The Neighbor

Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take his revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight.

Chapter Six:

As soon as the door shut behind the man who had kidnapped them both, Alice and Bella started struggling against their bonds with renewed vigor.

"That man is crazy." Alice said.

"We've got to get out of here." Bella added. "He'll kill us for sure."

She pulled against the ropes around her wrists, but they just seemed to get tighter and dig into her flesh more. Bella cast her eyes around, hoping for something sharp she could use, but found nothing. The only things she had a hope of reaching were a discarded cushion and maybe, if she rolled a bit, the lumpy couch. Neither seemed good cutting instruments.

Giving up on her hands for a moment, Bella folded her legs closer in and began to work on the knot holding at her ankles. It was incredibly hard to untie and unfamiliar knot behind her back and with only very limited hand movement, but she felt some progress might be made.

To her side she saw that Alice seemed to have the same idea, as the smaller girl had folded like a contortionist and was moving her hands along her feet.

More stomping upstairs caused both girls to hurry their efforts.

Bella felt one loop around her ankles give way just as Alice let loose a muted but no less triumphant squeal and pulled newly freed hands forward as she shifted her legs in front and began to pull on those ropes.

"I knew I loved these shoes for a reason."

Bella was stunned. "Did . . . did you just cut through ropes with a stiletto?" Bella had always hated heels, but this was kind of amazing.

Alice made quick work of her remaining bindings and moved to help Bella free her wrists.

"Of course not silly." But she didn't elaborate as she freed one hand, then the other, and stood up while Bella finished removing the rope still around her ankle. "It's a good thing that guy sucks at knots, huh?"

"Uh, right." Bella was pretty sure he didn't suck at knots.

"So…" Alice said, looking around. "Window?"

Bella nodded, "window." It was either that or go upstairs where their kidnapper was. Some choices just make themselves, Bella figured.

Alice moved over to the window and reached up, standing on her tiptoes, and began trying to push the old, dusty pane open. "I think it's been painted shut. I can barely reach this thing."

Bella moved toward the couch and grabbed one of those side tables. It was light enough that she was able to carry it over quickly.

"I should have worn taller shoes." Alice was complaining just as Bella brought over the end table. "Oh, good idea."

Standing together on the small table, both girls could now reach the window. Bella spotted a small, nail-like object that seemed drilled in to the bottom side of the frame.

"It's got a safety latch," she pointed out to Alice, "that's why you couldn't open it. Charlie—my Dad—loves these things." In fact he had put them on all her apartment windows, and added two to the balcony door. The one on this window was rusted and had possibly not been touched since its installation, but a little elbow grease and a lot of desperation later and Bella had managed to pull the pin.

"It should open now."

Together they forced the grimy window open inch by inch.

Slowly Bella got her first real look at the outside.

"Shit."

_Author's Note: It's a little short, but the main action is about to begin and that's going to be hard to break up so this is as good a place to end as any. Three chapters in 24 hours! It's not a posting schedule, but it's something I suppose. _

_ Still annoyed by that whole 'Witherdale' thing. I mean, seriously, could they have picked a less intimidating, more awkward surname?_


	7. Congrats! It's a WHAT

Title: The Neighbor

Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight.

Chapter Seven:

Trees. It was all trees.

Bella's first look out the window revealed thick, misty forest. Which, in the Pacific Northwest told her absolutely nothing about where she was. Well, she supposed, she could narrow it down to 'not in Seattle.' That was something.

Right?

Even the time was questionable. What she had thought was daylight turned out to be an area light ten feet off the side of the cabin. With that light and the thick tree cover she couldn't even tell if it was night or a cloudy day. And they were usually cloudy.

"You first." She bent a bit and cupped her hands, giving Alice a foot-up to crawl through the window they had opened. The end table shifted ominously as their weights shifted.

Alice placed one foot in Bella's cupped hands, and hoisted herself up. She came right back down, her stilettoes scraping Bella's knuckles. "Ouch."

Alice toed off one shoe quickly and tried again. This time she got enough of her upper body out of the opening that she stayed up. Shimmying back and forth she worked her way outside quickly.

She had just turned around and reached back inside to take her missing shoe when they heard a voice upstairs. It was muffled through the floor, but it seemed to be coming closer to the door at the top of the stairs.

"Hurry Bella!" Alice whispered, "he's coming!"

The girls clasped hands and Alice pulled while Bella jumped up. She came back down again. Next Bella tried just holding on to the window sill, but it was simply too high to give her the leverage she needed.

Upstairs they heard the awful sound of footsteps just outside the basement door.

"You killed my wife and my daughter! And you will pay!"

Bella locked eyes with Alice, who was desperately scraping at her arm trying to pull the other girl up as if sheer determination would make up what she lacked in strength.

"Run, Alice." Bella urged while Alice shook her head, "you have to! Go get help, it's the only way!"

The door burst open and their kidnapper stomped down the stairs.

"Your time is almost up, doc," he was saying, still too high up to see the girls.

"Go!" Bella mouthed, as she gave a last attempt at getting through the window. This time she caught herself with her elbows out and started to try to pull herself out.

She knew the exact moment when their kidnapper spotted her. The tense, patronizing voice changed instantly to anger.

"What the hell!"

And from the sound of his footsteps she could tell he was running.

"Run Alice!" Was the last thing Bella got out of her mouth before she was ripped bodily away from the window. Her last look outside was a glimpse of Alice turning tail and running into the treeline.

"You bitch!" The man roared, shoving Bella to the floor near the couch with one hand. She saw a phone in his other, but for the moment he seemed to have forgotten it.

He shoved his free hand through his dirty hair with a force that ripped some of it out.

Thinking quick, Bella looked around. He was no between her and the window, but the doorway was to the side. She made a mad dash for it, more for lack of options than real belief she would make it.

"Oh no you don't." An iron arm seized her around the stomach. "You're staying right here while I hunt that one down." She was flung to the couch.

In what was either a brilliant move or a really stupid one, or maybe both, Bella clutched her now bruised stomach, put on her best kicked puppy look, and screamed:

"Not my baby!"

Edward dropped his coffee. Charlie Swan dropped himself. Into a chair. Everyone else merely looked confused.

The image cut out.

Detective Aro was the first to comment. "She's pregnant?"

Edward thought it unfair the man looked at him when he asked it.

"I…" Edward stuttered. "I don't know?"

That was true. But finding himself in the awkward position of being indirectly accused of fathering a child he'd never heard of with a woman he'd barely met—and in front of both her father and his family—well, it just didn't seem like enough of a response.

"Dude, how can you not know?"

"No, I mean . . . I . . ."

"Look, this is a really bad time for some sort of 'I just tripped and fell on her—" SMACK.

Whatever Emmett had been about to finish with was cut off abruptly as Rosalie smacked the side of his head.

Turning to her blushing, stuttering brother-in-law, Rosalie calmly asked. "Edward, is there any way you have fathered a child with this woman?"

He managed to shake his head.

"Okay." Turning to the Chief, Rosalie continued in her calm voice. "Chief Swan? Did you know your daughter was pregnant?"

He managed to shake his head.

"Okay. So everybody clear on that? Bella might be pregnant, but Edward had nothing to do with it."

For some dumb reason Edward found himself nodding along at her. That feeling like his life had become some bad soap opera returned. He'd once seen a _Telenovela_ that was sort of like this. Well, he didn't speak much Spanish actually, but the impression was very similar and there had seemed to be a surprise baby at one point.

As the detectives in the room returned to buzzing around the electronic equipment and his family resumed low talking as they discreetly eyed him, Edward found himself once again eyeing the door. Maybe a long lost twin would show up after all.

_Author's Note: Phew, making up for a lot of lost time tonight huh? Four chapters in twenty four hours! I've been playing with the traffic stats option between chapters, and I just want to give a little shout out to Botswana. Who would have thought so many readers tonight would be from there? _


	8. Interior Design

Title: The Neighbor

Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight.

Chapter Eight:

From the time of the accident, it took fourteen hours for Victoria Witherdale and her unborn child to die. She never regained consciousness.

She had been wearing a seatbelt, and the ambulance had responded quickly. The accident had just been too severe. The car her husband was driving had clipped a car parked on the side of the road and then overcompensated in the other direction, plowing into a storefront across the street. He had been speeding.

After the events at the hospital, the husband was interviewed by police officers about the accident. He was suspected of being under the influence of narcotics, but disappeared before police could take him in to the station. According to the police report, he hadn't been seen since.

It was remarkable how quickly the detectives got the information together once Edward had remembered the man and his wife. He supposed that even in a big city like Seattle, there just weren't that many pregnant car accident victims who died at his hospital to muck up the search.

Another officer, Detective Marcus, was across the room talking to Detective Aro about the police reports that had just turned up. Things had been quiet since the video call had cut out nearly ten minutes ago. Edward could see that the IT guys were still fiddling around with his phone and the computer, but he wasn't knowledgeable in such matters to know whether they were getting anywhere. They looked a little bored, to be honest, so he assumed not.

The door opened and Emmett walked in carrying two fresh cups of coffee. He tapped one against Edward's hand were it laid limp on him armrest.

"Here man, you looked like you needed one."

"Yeah thanks." Edward took the cup and immediately lifted it to his mouth. The hot steam felt nice on his face, but the liquid burned his tongue. He drank it anyway.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, just drinking coffee and watching the different groups of people work and talk and seem to get nowhere.

"So, we're just waiting then?" Emmett finally asked.

Edward nodded. "Yeah. Detective Aro thinks he timed this whole thing out, probably planned it to all take fourteen hours, he thinks, from when he grabbed them." They'd discussed this right after the video call. James had been so insistent on how much "time" Edward had left. He never actually said how much time he meant, but Detective Aro's estimation seemed as logical as any.

"So that leaves. . .two hours?"

Edward nodded again, taking another sip of his dwindling coffee. "Yep."

It was quiet again for a while. Both men thinking about what might happen if they didn't find the women before the time was up. Across the room an officer tacked another couple photos up on the drawing board. It looked like a screen shots from the video call.

"You really think Alice got out?" Emmett finally asked.

To this he just shrugged noncommittally. "I think so. I mean, she was all the way out when he realized it, and you know how quick Alice can be."

"Yeah," Emmett acceded the point. "And how well that girl can hide."

Last summer Emmett had gotten into paintball, and had asked Alice along. Edward was pretty sure she hadn't known what the game entailed until that first paint bullet hit her shoulder. It was the last one to land on her, as far as he knew, and she'd played religiously all summer.

"Alice will be alright." Emmett declared, crushing his cup as he stood and stretched. He turned to Edward with a slight smile. "Besides, if what that Bella chick said shocked that asshole half as much as it shocked everybody here, she'll have had a nice lead."

Edward snorted and rose to follow Emmett over to the drawing board.

There were ten new photos tacked up to the board. One each of James Witherdale, Bella and Alice—or at least, Alice's foot and leg as seen through the window. The rest were photos of the cabin itself, and it was definitely a cabin by the looks of things, and one somewhat blurry photo that looked to be a close-up view out the window. Trees. That was all the was visible. Well, and a pole. But that was just as helpful as the trees.

That could be anywhere.

"Looks like a cabin." Emmett mused, studying one of the photos closely.

Edward grunted a vague noise of agreement. His eyes were focused on the photo of his neighbor. It was from the end of the call, when she had been hunched awkwardly on the couch clutching her midsection. Her eyes were focused up and to the left of the camera, but even at the angle Edward could see her fear. Fear and . . . something.

He wasn't sure, and really, he didn't know her at all. But Edward got the impression that look on her face was calculating as much as it was fear.

To his right Emmett suddenly tensed.

"Hey Rosie!" He hollered over to the waiting area where his wife still sat, his too-loud voice drawing the attention of most everyone in the room.

"What?" She huffed even as she came over.

Emmett pointed a finger at one of the photos of the upstairs area James had been sitting in when he first connected the video call. His finger hovered over a dime-store painting in the background of ducks flying over a muddy lake.

"Yeah?" Rosalie muttered, obviously not seeing whatever Emmett was trying to show her.

"See this?" Emmett asked, and then pointed to another photo, this time the one Edward had been eyeing of Bella, "And this couch?" He gestured back and forth. "Don't those look familiar.

"Fuck." Rosalie said, suddenly shoving Edward out of the way so she could see the whole display of photos better. Her eyes flicked between the different shots rapidly, finally stopping on the useless window shot.

"Those fucking curtains."

"What—" Edward started to ask, just as Rosalie turned fully to him and said with an incredulous expression:

"I think I know where they are."

_Author's Note: Trying to maintain the posting trend! Only a few chapters left now, so everything is drawing in to the close now. Btw, I did end up using 'Witherdale' as James and Victoria's surname. Still kind of annoyed at that name, but it's the closest we have to a canon-surname so whatever._


	9. Hurry Up and Wait

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. **

**Chapter Nine: Hurry Up and Wait**

It just wasn't fair.

Edward paced back and forth in front of a seated Esme. They were still in the Seattle police station, the same place they'd been all night and all of what had passed of this morning. On the desk nearest them, Edward's phone sat untouched, still plugged in to the detective's computer. A lone IT guy was all but twiddling his thumbs behind the desk. An older detective was in the corner on his phone.

Everyone else was gone.

After Rosalie and Emmett's huge revelation, namely that they recognized the cabin in the photographs of Alice and Bella, the room had seemed to be hit by a whirlwind. Detective Aro was immediately by their sides questioning the location of the cabin and every word out of Rosalie's mouth seemed to have sent a new officer running.

Someone found and tacked up a map of the entire Olympic National Forest. Emmett had rented the cabin from a friend of a friend, and within minutes was on his phone as Rose continued talking to Aro, trying to hunt down said friend of friend's phone number.

It had been years since they'd been to the cabin, near the beginning of their relationship in fact, before Emmett's enthusiastic, if usually fruitless, attempts at being a hunter/fisher/all-around-animal-getter had dwindled off in the continued presence of Rosalie's disdain for the grimier ways of life.

"I should be doing something." Edward said. He did not whine. Mostly.

Without even looking up at him Esme replied. "You are doing exactly what you should be doing, Edward. What if he calls again?"

It was true, Edward needed to be here in case his phone rang. Even if it was mobile, the equipment it was hooked up to surely wasn't. Meanwhile everyone else was off doing something more useful and exciting.

Emmett had not been able to get into direct contact with the owner of the cabin, and since the roads leading to it were not paved and not on the map the police had, both he and Rosalie had gone with Detective Aro and a few uniformed police officers to show the way. Chief Swan had gotten to go along seemingly because he was an officer himself, but also, Edward conceded, because the man obviously knew the area, and his own department was traveling to the area from the opposite side.

Carlisle had gotten to ride along by virtue that it couldn't hurt to have a doctor handy, and Detective Aro had taken a liking to the man.

"I feel so useless just sitting here!"

Edward collapsed into a plastic chair across from his mother. She looked up and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. They had had this conversation a few times.

"I know I know."

Technically, Edward tried to reassure himself, Jasper wasn't doing anything either. He was still at his and Alice's house, waiting to see if anyone contacted him for ransom. Edward suspected he was going nuts so far from the action and with his wife lost somewhere in the state park and possibly with a madman chasing her.

If anyone had even told him that part.

"Has anybody talked to Jasper?"

This time Esme raised her phone from her lap. "I'm texting with him right now. He's got a few cops over at the house with him, sounds like they've told him what we know." Esme tapped out something on her screen. "Not that it's enough, of course."

Edward nodded at her and bent over to put his head in his hands. There wasn't anything he could be doing right now. He knew this.

He had to be available in case that psycho called him again. He couldn't be off traipsing through the forest looking for a cabin he'd never been to.

Still, the knowledge did little to calm his nerves. Maybe it was too many movies or something, but he felt like he should be out there too. This was centered around him, he shouldn't be sitting bored in a police station drinking mediocre coffee while other people suffered for him.

If this was a movie, he was positive he'd be out there right now. Probably armed to the teeth and single-handedly taking out the bad guy. They wouldn't have even needed the cops. And in the end, well, Edward was pretty sure he'd be carrying his neighbor off into the sunset.

Maybe even while not watching an explosion.

He got up to go get a new cup of coffee.

_Author's Note: So I was originally planning to have the story told from both Bella and Edward's perspective on each scene, switching back and forth. And for the first few chapters it really did go that way. One character would go through a particular time period, and then we'd switch POV's and see what the other one was doing during that time frame. But I'm stopping that now, mostly because now that we're into the action I don't want to slow things down by rehashing everything twice, it kind of annoys me when other writers do that. Hope nobody minds this little adjustment. _

_Other than that, thanks for the reviews people! This story hit the 50 mark yesterday, that was pretty exciting. I feel like there are a lot of review-happy people in the Twilight section of fanfiction, but coming from less populous categories, this is pretty great._


	10. Conversations with My Kidnapper

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. Some cussing in this chapter people. Nothing too shocking, I think. **

**Chapter Ten: Conversations with My Kidnapper**

So far her ruse had worked. Bella was still seated on the couch her kidnapper had thrown her to earlier. He was still with her, sitting silently on the stairs, which had been the point of it all. But it was still unnerving how he stared at her.

He hadn't said anything, his only real action was to periodically check the screen of his phone. He hadn't made any other calls either. She really wasn't sure whether that was good or not. But the important thing was that he had not gone after Alice.

Bella sincerely hoped the girl had made it somewhere safe. She also hoped Alice would send help. She tried not to dwell on it though.

In the meantime she should buy time. Charlie would try to buy time. And talk to her kidnapper. Try to make him see her as a person. But how do you make someone see you as a person? She didn't even know the man, had been calling him 'kidnapper' in her head this whole time. Well that was a place to start at least.

"What's you name?" She was proud of how normal her voice sounded.

The man looked up from where he had been checking his phone. He stared at her for a long moment, face expressionless, and she began to think he wouldn't answer her at all.

"James." He finally responded.

Bella nodded in acknowledgement. "I'm—"

He cut her off, "Isabella Swan. I know."

They sat quietly for a long minute.

"Bella, please."

He just quirked an eyebrow at that and checked his phone again. Another minute passed. Bella looked around the room desperate for something to talk about, but it was just as barren now as it had been before.

She looked back at her kidnapper. James.

The man was exceptionally scruffy. He was wearing light colored jeans and a dark shirt covered in an army green jacket that looked like it had seen better days. There was a dark rim of something around the cuff of his left sleeve, and a smudge of something similar on the knee of one pant leg. She did not think too long on what that stain might be from.

"Are you left handed?" She asked instead.

This caused the man to lower his arms and set the phone next to him on the stairs.

"Am I left handed? That's what you want to know?" He stood now, and walked a few paces toward her. "No 'why are you doing this?' No pleading for you life?"

Bella shrugged her shoulders. "Would it help me any?"

He laughed harshly. "Nope."

"Then why bother?" She arched a brow at him and looked around the room again. Still nothing interesting there. "This has something to do with Edward right?"

He scoffed at her and began to pace.

"Something to do with Edward." He mimicked in a high, unflattering impression of her voice. "It has everything to do with your precious Edward!"

Bella didn't have anything to respond to that with, but it didn't matter as soon enough James began talking enough for the both of them.

"Edward Cullen." He muttered the name like a curse. "That fucking excuse for a doctor killed my wife! My Victoria!" He shouted the last bit and turned to stare into her face. "Your _precious _Edward murderd my Victoria and my son."

He leaned toward her, pressing her back into the couch as his arms caged her in.

"They're dead because of him. Do you know what that's like? To lose the most important people in the world to you? To lose your family because some quack can't do his fucking job?"

Bella shook her head side to side, too nervous to speak.

James leaned in further, his hot breathe washing across her face.

"Well he will."

_Author's Note: And we're over the 10,000 words mark with this chapter! I want to thank everyone who is reading, and especially those of you who have taken the time to review. I'm really trying to finish this story up without taking anymore long breaks between chapters, and you have no idea how encouraging and motivating those reviews can be._


	11. Out of Time

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. **

**Chapter Eleven: Out of Time**

It was twenty minutes until the expected end time when Edward Cullen heard the ominous sound of his cell phone ringing. The IT guy lounging behind the desk it sat on jumped into action and the old detective across the room rushed over and signaled with his and for Edward to wait.

The IT guy tapped a few things out on his keypad and then instructed Edward to answer the phone.

Beside him Esme leaned forward on her chair.

Edward took a deep steading breath and picked up the phone. He clicked the side button absently to light up the screen.

"It's another video call."

"Answer it." The detective urged.

Edward tapped the accept button on his touch screen. Immediately the display changed to a dark image of James Witherdale's face.

"Hey Doc." The man smiled cruelly. "Time's up."

Bella braced herself against the couch corner as James began talking into his phone. She had the distinct feeling something bad was about to happen, and her fears were concerned as he smiled cruelly into the camera.

"Time's up."

With that he turned the device around in his hand so that it was aimed at her, and Bella shuddered involuntarily as he smiled at her.

Without warning he grabbed her by the arm and lifted her bodily from the relative safety of the couch. She slammed her to the ground and she scurried backward until her back hit the wall.

The whole time James balanced the phone's camera at her. Bella could hear yelling from the other end of the line, but could not make out what was being said.

A booted foot slammed down on her and Bella forcibly closed her mouth mid-scream as she felt the bone give way. Blood soaked her pant leg and her leg twisted the wrong way.

James pushed the camera into her face.

"This is my favorite part. Tell Edward how much it hurts Bella. Tell him!"

The smell of her own blood coupled with the pain in her leg was making Bella dizzy. She could hear the distant sound of muffled yelling and was trying with all her might to focus her eyes enough to keep watch of James. She couldn't open her mouth without screaming out, so she kept it tightly closed, shaking her head at him and whimpering pathetically.

"Come on girl, what's the matter? Is it not enough? Do you want more?"

Her vision blurred as his struck out again, this time she tried to block his foot, but felt her wrist snap back instead. Pulling her arm in against her stomach protectively Bella tried to scoot away sideways. James followed her, laughing as he did.

"How is it Edward? Watching the woman you love feel pain? Knowing she's going to die soon and there's nothing you can do?"

Bella heard that muffled shouting sound again, she tried to focus on it, on anything but the pain in her leg and wrist, but it was too much. The pain was too much, the blood was pooling now, her foot sliding clumsily in the growing puddle and she attempted her feeble escape. She felt light headed from the smell and the blood loss.

Her field of vision narrowed sharply to and she began to slide sideways down the wall. She heard James raise his voice again, was he yelling at her? Turning her heavy head he came into view, his features blurred and indistinct.

He moved around, too quickly for her head to keep up, and his loud voice melted into the throbbing sound of her pulse in her ears. Bella slide further down the wall and curled slightly. A loud noise echoed around her, though whether it was in the room or in her head she wasn't sure. A sharp pain exploded in her abdomen, the force of it radiating out and shaking her whole body.

It was the last thing she noticed before the darkness took her.

_Author's Note: Hope that wasn't too violent, but it had to be a little grotesque to be realistic. In regards to the last chapter, I realized after posting it that there were a few too many uses of the word 'precious.' In my defense I was totally watching the new Hobbit movie while writing that chapter. _


	12. Life is Not An Action Movie

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. **

**Chapter Twelve: Life is Not an Action Movie**

Edward tried to get James' attention, he really did. But there is only so much one can do through a phone. He watched helplessly as the madman landed blow after blow on his helpless neighbor. The camera shook and the image was small, but even through that intermediate Edward could swear he heard bones breaking. The pained whimpers sounded louder, somehow, that the yelling, the pooling blood was as visible as the moon in the dark.

Around him the room was in chaos. Esme was the only other solitary thing, her hand clasped tightly across her face in horror as she watched from his side. The IT man was typing like a maniac, flipping from screen to screen and doing things Edward couldn't even spare the brain space to guess at. The old detective was on what seemed to be three phones at once, whispering furiously as he watched everything coming across the call.

Edward couldn't tear his eyes away from the image, he tried talking to Witherdale, said nonsense things to get his attention. But it was useless, the man wasn't listening. He was busy.

Edward saw the exact moment Bella Swan lost consciousness. On the small screen he stared into her dilated eyes as fear turned to confusion and then nothing. She slumped over after a nasty kick to the midsection, body wilting under the onslaught.

His gut clenched at the sight, but the images continued. He knew with sudden surety that James had not even noticed her collapse. A rage unlike any he had felt before welled up within him, but there was no outlet for it. He was too far away, he felt the impotence of his rage acutely.

Through the phone he heard a loud bang, and the image jerked abruptly away from Bella's crumpled form.

He couldn't make anything out for a long moment as the phone's camera whipped around too quickly to focus on anything. There was noise, yelling and stomping, and—

BANG

A second later the video cut out. Call ended.

Edward stared at his phone in shock.

Eventually the screen faded to black.

He looked up from the phone and turned to meet the teary eyes of his mother.

"Was that a gunshot?"

Esme didn't respond in words, but she turned to look at the detective, and Edward followed her motion.

The man was watching them even as he listened to a headset pressed against his ear. In silent response to their question, he turned a dial on the phone and the room was immediately filled with the loud sound of static.

It took a moment, but a voice came across the line.

". . . suspect down."

_Author's Note: Oh yeah. I totally just indirectly called Edward impotent. Not too much more of the serious stuff folks, we'll get back to the lighter hearted stuff soon._

_This chapter is short, I know, but hey, it's quick! I think it's obvious we're wrapping things up soon. Only a few more chapters to go. Btw, I very nearly cut it off at "Was that a gunshot?" but it seemed a little cheap to leave you at a cliffy like that._


	13. Fire Bad, Tree Pretty

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. **

**Chapter Thirteen: Fire Bad, Tree Pretty**

Bella awoke to a quiet, dark room. Her sore eyes adjusted slowly to the faint light as her ears picked up a steady rhythm of quiet beeps and clicks nearby. Further away she could hear the murmur of voices and of rubber soles scrapping against the ground.

It was not immediate, but gradually the pain in her body made itself known. She tried to shift around, to get more comfortable, but the effort was fruitless. Her left leg was entirely immobile, as was part of her right arm. Aches, pains, and what felt like bruises covered the rest of her seemingly without end.

No, that wasn't right. Her forehead felt fine.

She tried to focus on that. Her limbs throbbed, her body ached, even her hair managed to hurt, but her forehead had no complaints. That was something, she supposed.

The sound of fabric shifting drew her attention, and she turned to see her father moving forward in a chair near the foot of her bed.

"Hey kid."

His rough voice was music to her ringing ears.

"Dad?"

He rose partially out of his seat and clicked a button on the wall before settling back down and half smiling at her.

"How are you feeling?"

She thought about it a moment, scrunching her face as she searched for words. "My forehead is great."

Charlie barked a laugh at that.

"And the rest of you?"

Bella closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness came over her. When it had safely passed she blinked them open and stared at the white ceiling. "My forehead is great."

He didn't ask again.

Soon the door opened and a male doctor with dark hair entered the room. The light from the hallway was an intense disturbance and Bella tried futilely to shift away from the offending brightness. Her movements were complicated by plaster and wires, and the door closed before she could manage a turn.

"Miss Swan, nice to see you awake."

The doctor fiddled with a display near the bed as he talked.

"How are you feeling?"

She squinted at him.

"She says her forehead feels fine." Charlie spoke up, a slight edge of humor to his voice.

The doctor grinned at her and clicked a dial on the medicinal drip attached to her IV line.

"You should feel better shortly. Now, this will make you drowsy. We've got a lot to go over, but most can wait until you're feeling more lucid."

Bella attempted a nod, but the movement was disjointed and sluggish as the medicine hit her bloodstream. She heard her father say something, but his voice echoed as if from far away.

She slept.

_Author's Note: Another short chapter, but we've come to the end. I originally wrote a section detailing her injuries, with more doctor convos, but honestly it was dull. This isn't an angsty story, and she'll eventually be fine. I'm estimating maybe two more chapters. Hopefully this will be done by the end of the week!_


	14. Meet the Neighbor

**Title: The Neighbor**

**Summary: After Dr. Edward Cullen fails to save a woman's life, her grieving husband vows to take revenge. Too bad he confuses Edward's new neighbor for his girlfriend.**

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. **

**Chapter Fourteen: Meeting the Neighbor**

Edward was back at the police station. It was two days after the death of James Witherdale, and he was due for questioning. He'd given his official statement the day before, but Detective Aro had called him in for one last follow-up. He had plans to meet up with his family at Alice and Jasper's house once this was over.

It was in the waiting room that he saw her. The receptionist was on the phone paging Aro that he had arrived when he happened to look up and see a woman walking with Detective Marcus. They were passing a window between the lobby and a back hallway, but even at this distance Edward recognized her.

Bella Swan. His neighbor. The girl he had met only once, but who he had still shared the extraordinarily bad last few days with.

She disappeared out of the view of the window.

The morning that police had stormed the cabin she and Alice had been held hostage in, Edward had been beside himself with worry. He had insisted to everyone who would listen that he be taken to the hospital to see her, he wanted to assure himself that she was really going to be okay.

But it was wasted effort. There were all kinds of questions to answer, things had to be made official. Eventually he was told that his sister had been picked up by forest rangers nearly two miles from the cabin. She'd actually been found before Bella, but the news had traveled slowly.

When he was finally released from custody that first day he and Esme had gone to see Alice at the hospital. It was not the same hospital that Bella Swan was taken to.

Alice was checked over, she gave her statement, and the family was able to take her home that night. Edward had all but collapsed onto his sister's sofa for a solid twelve hours.

The next day had been spent entirely at the police station as the detectives crossed their t's and dotted their i's.

It was all happening rather quickly, he was assured, because James had made things simple by acting alone and then dying. It had been quite considerate of him really.

"Mr. Cullen you can go on back now. Detective Aro is waiting for you."

Edward nodded his acknowledgement and headed to the now familiar office.

He was done two long hours later.

He hung around for a while anyway, quite at home now in the station waiting room. He drank three coffees and kept watch at the door. But Bella Swan never emerged, and when he finally built up the courage to just simply ask the receptionist, who had been eyeing his strange behavior for a while now, he was informed the woman had left nearly an hour prior.

Disappointed, Edward left.

He made it all the way to his car in the parking lot when a beep of his phone drew his attention. Checking the display, Edward smiled as an idea began to form.

"Hello?"

Bella was having a bad day. She was on day four of a temporary leave of absence from work, and bored out of her mind. She couldn't work because she was on enough painkillers to sedate a horse and had trouble focusing her eyes on just one thing at a time, not to mention the trouble walking required.

But after several days sitting at home metaphorically twiddling her thumbs (she couldn't even twiddle her thumbs for real, as one was sprained), she was driving herself crazy. The term 'cabin fever' had never seemed so descriptive.

Charlie had stayed with her the first few days, but eventually he had needed to go back to work. Renee had offered to come stay with her for a while, but as much as Bella loved her mother, she was in no condition to handle being 'taken care of' by Renee.

Now with nothing better to do, Bella was reclined on her couch attempting to watch movies. She had put on an old, six hour long version of Pride and Prejudice—she had the time, after all—but was having trouble keeping her eyes focused on the screen.

At least she knew the story, though, so she was able to follow along even with her fading attention.

Just as Elizabeth overheard Mr. Darcy insulting those present at the country ball, there was a knock on her door.

This was the most exciting part of her day so far, and she hurried to grab her crutches and lever herself up to a standing position.

It took three tries of falling back to the couch like a big dizzy toddler before she was able to remain standing up. The knock repeated.

"I'm coming!" She called, desperate for whoever it was to not leave the door. She thought it might be a friend who had gotten off work early, or heck even the postman. At this point she'd even take one of those door-to-door religious people, just anything to break up the monotony.

She crossed the apartment faster than was strictly wise, and balanced awkwardly on her crutches to free up a hand to open the door.

She wrenched it open too quickly, and it dislodged her right crutch. Bella had only time to gasp in surprise before she began to fall.

Her torso slammed unexpectedly into a warm body, and arms curled reflexively around her waist.

Shocked, she looked up and suddenly locked eyes with a man, her face no doubt bright red even as she lost herself inappropriately in his green eyes. She took in his strong jaw, his flushed face, the bits of hazel in his green eyes. She had no lucid thoughts.

"Uh…hello." She said finally.

A sudden wide grin broke out across his face.

"We've got to stop meeting like this."

A wet nose pressed into her palm, and Bella looked down to see her dog, alive and happy looking, staring up at her.

"Would you like to come in?"

_Author's Note: And things come full circle. I hope everyone enjoyed this story. It was certainly fun to write despite the crazy long break and all the lost chapters I had near the beginning. I'm working on something new already, but I might just wait until it's done before posting anything. _


End file.
